Extension of Retail & Services Permitted; Professional Services Still Banned

Hot Mess boutique salon owner Tara Weldon sat through the past couple months of Planning Board and City Council meetings as the issue of expanding the allowable services in the Central Business District [CBD] redevelopment zone were vetted.

Relief came Wednesday night when the Asbury Park City Council unanimously voted, despite a contrary recommendation from its Planning Board, to approve the expansion of services.

“I’m so excited,” said Weldon, who aims to bring all her offerings under one umbrella by moving up the block into the Passion Group building at Cookman Avenue and Emory Street [shown at right]. “At the height of the summer, if I had an event or wedding, I would have to close down because I didn’t have enough space.”

As the city’s redevelopment authority, the City Council had final say on whether to expand the permitted businesses but sent the changes to the Planning Board for its recommendations.

And, although the Planning Board voted in part to some of the proposed CBD amendments, it did not find the service expansion consistent with the Master Plan.

The City’s Director of Planning and Development Michele Alonso and the City Council disagreed.

“It is essentially opening up the central business district for light industry and retail,” Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said Wednesday. “For example, you are now going to be able to have a yoga studio that sells their yoga products at the front of the store and have their services in the back, meaning yoga classes.

“The logic behind this is to try to swing the pendulum away from so many bars and restaurants in the downtown which, are causing a bit of grief in terms of disorderly conduct and such,” Quinn said. “It opens up Cookman Avenue for a bit of service, industry and retail.”

Councilwoman Yvonne Clayton said the change will encourage an increase in foot traffic during the day to existing businesses.

“They will now have an opportunity to have more clients,” Clayton said.

Alonso has said the limited allowable uses were creating lags in foot traffic within the downtown.

“We are at a tipping point,” she said during the Oct 3 Planning Board meeting. “Because we have not permitted service on Cookman Avenue it is causing dead zones.”

The expansion was among three Central Business Redevelopment Plan [CBD] changes the Asbury Park City Council remitted to the Planning Board for vetting. The bulk of the changes were centered around cleaning up existing language, Alonso said.

“The redevelopment plan is five years old and has had 14 amendments,” Alonso said.

Among the other changes, which the Planning Board approved, was the striking of language that governed the construction of parking decks, and making it mandatory that residential parking be used by the tenants for which the spaces were built.

“You cannot rent out or lease the parking spaces to a building or a use that is across the street or next door,” Alonso said. “This is to prevent parking bidding because we have residential parking requirement for a reason.”

The adopted amendments also restrict the time frame for which commercial parking is allowed in mixed use buildings with homes.

The hours of commercial parking went from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in order to be consistent with current residential/commercial parking guidelines in the area.

“I’d be very furious if I came home at 6 or 7 p.m. at night and couldn’t find my parking spot for another three hours,” Planning Board member Jim Henry said on Oct 3.

The changes also allow for temporary surface parking lots not to exceed five years, with an option for another five year renewal.

Redevelopment Attorney Karl Kemm said Wednesday the City Council vote means the governing body finds the CBD amendment to be consistent with master plan.

“It complies with the master plan, advances master plan, advances the purposes of the redevelopment area, and complies with the purpose of the municipal land use,” he said.

The allowable business expansion does not include permitting professional services such as marketing or real estate offices, Mayor John Moor said.